• At a Glance: For the third time in seven games, Carey Price was pulled in favour of Alex Auld as the Canadiens lost 6-2 to the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday night. Rookie Jeff Skinner put on a show throughout the game, scoring a pair of first-period goals, both off Canadiens turnovers. Skinner beat Price between the legs at 11:01 of the first period after a pass eluded Scott Gomez. At 15:06, he took advantage of another turnover and deked Price with a nifty backhand goal. In the second period, Michael Cammalleri scored a power-play goal at 5:23 to make it 2-1 for the Hurricanes, but Carolina wasted little time hitting back. Jamie McBain scored from the point on a shot Price never saw at 6:10 and Joni Pitkanen’s shot found the back of the net at 9:03. Skinner collected an assist on that goal. Auld came in to play the third period in place of Price, who has struggled away from the Bell Centre recently. P.K. Subban scored Montreal’s second power-play goal of the game 9:01 into the third period to narrow the Hurricanes’ lead to 4-2. McBain scored his second goal of the game during a 3-on-1 break with five minutes to play in the third period to make it 5-2. Cory Stillman made it 6-2 with a power-play goal at 17:47.

• What It Means: The Canadiens fall to 41-30-7 for 89 points, good for sixth place in the Eastern Conference, two points ahead of the Sabres, who sit in seventh place with 87 points. The Hurricanes now have 84 points, three behind the Rangers for eighth place in the East.

• What’s Next: The Canadiens play the Devils in New Jersey on Saturday night before embarking on the final week of their regular season with games aganst the Blackhawks at home and then in Ottawa on Thursday and Toronto on Saturday to end the season.

69 Comments

wow… that was terrible… this habs d and their defensive play are in for a rude awakening come playoffs…
once Patches is back… hope hope… get Desharnais out and put Halpern at centre… he gets bounced around too much…
Sopel and Mara combo, that’s done. Spacer has to get back and get Picard back in…
Just do something!

Playoffs? You guys talk about it like it’s a sure thing. The best thing to come out of this sorry season would be for this team to choke & miss the playoffs. May be then and only then we can ditch the tools known as JM & PG.

folks mark it here, copy and save………………Martin will not be back next year. Its over. He’s lost the dressing room and cannot develop youth. Simply speaking the team needs a change in direction. They play a defensive system and still get out shot and if it wasn’t for price they would not even be close to a playoff spot. The biggest single factor is his youth record. It will take the youth of today to be a contender 5 years from now. Molson cannot support a loosing team. Martin will go.

What’s not to understand? Detroit’s a much better team and they just got their butts handed to them 10-3 by the Blues. This is STILL largely an AHL lineup with all the talent they’ve got on the shelf right now, their top two lines aren’t scoring, their next two lines aren’t capable of scoring at top NHL clip, especially at 3rd and 4th line ice time.
They have the ability to compete on their good days, but what makes them AHL talents is that they can’t do that every night.
They win they win, they lose they lose, the sun will still rise and set tomorrow. Enjoy the ride because at the start of the year if we were told Markov would only play 7 games, Gorges would be out for 4-5 months, Spacek would miss the final 2 months, Gomez would go 25 games without a goal at the same time as Gionta would go 12 games and Cammy would go 9 games, that Cammy, and Gionta would both miss months at a time, that AK46 would be a 3rd liner half the time, that Pouliot would be a glorified 4th liner, that Pacioretty would be considered as our top forward and then he’d also miss a couple months, and the only way we’d have a chance to even sniff the playoffs is with a Hart Trophy caliber season out of Price…. I’m guessing not many houses would be wagered on the Habs’ chances.

I tried posting this under ‘Another humiliation’ but it never appeared (I’ll check again in three days).

Well, that was fun. Don’t worry. Once the playoffs begin, we’ll be a different team. Honest.
Still, the faith of the staunchest Habs’ fans is being tested these days. And if your faith is beginning to waver, maybe just maybe you aren’t the treu-bleu Canadiens’ supporter you thought you were.
Take this test to find out if you are the real deal – or just another troll.
So where you’re gonna be? A or B?

A. Son’s first minor hockey game.
B. Watching Habs’s first practice of the season

A. Honeymoon night
B. Last minute invitation to corporate box for seventh game of Stanley Cup final in Montreal, versus Vancouver (previous six games went into OT, with home team winning each match)

A. Opera matinee performance followed by trip to mall to choose paint for kids’ bedroom redo the wife has planned for you, which you’ll get to discuss with the in-laws when they come over for a game of Monopoly tonight
B. Gomez autograph signing

Excellent JB. The only “B” choice I selected is the last one mainly because I like opera. I never used to like opera, all the wailing and the screeching and the fat lady stuff, you know. But after this season I’ve come to rather enjoy the 3 hours of butt-squirming pain that opera provides over that other 3 hours of pain. So tell me, am I still a fan?

We jumped all over Gomez for not producing, but Gionta deserves to shoulder some of the blame for not finishing the many chances he gets almost every game. Cammalleri and Plekanec have nagging injuries to use as an excuse, but what of our captain? There was a play tonight in the 1st period with the game scoreless and Gionta missed the entire net from five feet out. I know he’s trying, but put it simply: we need our top guns to get the job done.

Right now I’d rather be watching those two than Sopel and Mara. If mistakes are going to be made, I’d rather it be by young guys who can skate. Habs D, with Gill, Sopel, Mara and Hammer, is slower than snot in February.

Morgan Ellis likely playing the last game of his Q season tonight. Not his fault, Cape Breton Screaming Eagles have about a .300 winning percentage are up against the Saint John Sea Dogs, who are the top-ranked team in the entire CHL and are behind in their series 3-0. Brendan Gallagher’s VAN Giants also face elimination tonight and are down 3-0 in the series. I wouldn’t hang him on it either, he came back from a concussion and the Giants aren’t tip-top this season.

Louis Leblanc and Philippe Lefebvre can ice a 1st-round playoff series win tonight with a 4-0 sweep of the Halifax Mooseheads. Michael Bournival can take a 3-1 lead with the Shawinigan Cataractes today over PEI Rocket.

On a minor note with nothing to do with tonight’s game:
NCAA Division 1 Niagara University grad Paul Zanette has signed a deal with the Hamilton Bulldogs. Basically a “tryout” contract to be closely monitored by Habs brass. Zanette is a 2011 Hobey Baker finalist who scored 29 goals and 26 assists this season. Not bad for a 35 game schedule. Zanette is a 6’2” winger/centre who is not afraid to go to the dirty areas on the ice. Of course it remains to be seen how he will adapt to the pros, but from what I have seen watching him for the last few years, I think he will do just fine. Just thought I would throw this out there, unaware if it has already been mentioned by anyone or announced by the organization.

An interesting point in todays Ottawa sun (if anybody else reads it) Its probably everywhere else as well. George Laraque talking about a team losing faith in the coach. I for one discredit the sun all the time for there as bad as the NSEN anouncers. But i really think that this team listens more to Kirk then JM. I really do not want to see Kirk go anywere else, especially an eastern conference team. Molson brothers have to make a decision, we all know coaching changes can go both ways, we have seen more positive then negative as of late. Im not saying fire JM, but we need a coach who may show signs of emotion, and encouragement to the players other then after the game behind closed doors. I do not remember at any point this season JM talking to a player on the bench. Guy boucher would sit on a players lap to tell him what to do.

And i wanted to post for a while about this. Did JM or Dustin Boyd have a fallout, i was hoping in the earlier of the season he would be beneficial to the team. But he is bigger then alot of player we have called up. he didnt do much in his 10 games, but i dont think it was enough for an established player.

I did some quick math on the quality of opposition for MTL/CAR/BUFF/NYR in their remaining 6 games(5 for us).
Buffalo has the toughest sked(average 90.3 pts for the opposition), Carolina 85.2(4 home 2 away) NYR 83.6 and our Habs at 78.6. Of course Carolina has the disadvantage of being outside a playoff spot right now. Go Habs!

There was a lot of talk of mental breakdowns and a team that was succumbing to bullying. It appears that the players got together to work out a solution. So here we have two teams fighting for a spot in the next season. One already there and the other waiting to jump into the fray. Tonight’s game should be close.

There were three men who were lost in the forest. They were captured by cannibals. The cannibal king told the prisoners that they could live if they pass the trial. The first step of the trial was to go into the forest and get ten pieces of the same kind of fruit. So all three men went separate ways to gather fruits.

The first one came back and said to the king, “I brought ten apples.”

The king then explains the trial to him-you have to shove the fruits up your a** without any expression on your face or you’ll be eaten.

The first apple went in…but on the second one he winced in pain, so he was killed and went to heaven.

The second guy arrives with ten berries. When the king explained the trial to him, he thought to himself that this should be easy. 1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…but on the ninth berry he burst out in laughter, therefore also was killed.

The first guy and the second guy met in heaven. The first one asked, “Why did you laugh, you almost got away with it?”

The second one replied, “I couldn’t help it. I saw the third guy coming with pineapples.”

Three nuns go up to heaven. St.Pete’s waitin for’em.
He says to the first nun “Sister, before I let you in, you will look me in the eye and swear that you have respected your vow of chastity.”
Nun tries to but breaks down in sobs in front of St.Pete’s saintly gaze “No, Pete, no! I once held a ding-a-ling in my hands, oh-boo-hoo-hoo!”
“Then you shall WASH your hands in the Holy Water and be forgiven!” Which the nun does and lo! the Pearlies open and in she strolls.
Then, St.Pete turns to the second nun and is about to put the same question to her, but the THIRD nun, who sees where this is going, pushes the 2nd nun outta the way and shouts “Listen up here, buddy, I’m washin my mouth before SHE washes her butt; I’m tellin you that RIGHT now!”

Way too much credit given Gomez’s lastnight. he didnt look much different out there. maybe a little jump but please, is it really enough for the media to praise him? in my opinion they should be giving Eller all of his ice time. including the PP.

I was surprised last night, he entered the offencive zone, did not stop at the second ad on the board, he kept on going, actually went to the net and shot the puck! I was flabbergasted, I tell you.
Of course one game will not wipe away his season, but it was good to see him try harder. Good signs with the upcoming playoffs.

yeah gomez was flying down the wing had a good chance to score but waited till the the dman got his stick in the way. he is a bum no doubt. i dont expect anything more in the playoffs than i see now. the guy just has no talent. the only way he would be better is if he had Elias on his line. Elias is prob the most underrated player in the nhl. and a had a lot to do with his success in NJ

we hit a hot team, simple as that.
yeah last week was bad but seriously, they played buffalo who are playing well lately ( excluding the toranna game), Boston has a team and a half, and Washington is Washington. was it really expected to have a great week? you cant win them all thats for sure. Other teams have to win too. that goal scoring slump was not concerning for me at all. a part from the Boston blowout we didnt play that bad last week. i predict that we will win atleast 4 of the last 5 games. and we will finish 6th and play Boston in the first round. then beat them in 6!

Lots of scoreboard watching tonight (and for the rest of the season). I was at the game last night and constantly checking the out-of-town scores! Pls forgive – I was rooting for the Laffs to beat Sabres! Let’s go Habs and finish the season with a nice winning streak! GHG!